May we in this Eucharistic celebration have the grace to realise that no matter the turbulence we have in our various circumstances of life, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus is always there for us, we need to have an unwavering faith in him.
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Job 38,1.8-11;2 Cor.5, 14-17; Mark 4,35-41; 12th Sunday of Year B, June 20, 2021)
On this Sunday the Gospel we are presented to with the manifestation of Jesus’ divine power: he calms the storm. This Gospel is prepared from the first reading, in which God speaks to Job, remembering his power over the sea. The second reading presents us with another perspective, because it speaks of Christ’s love who died for all men: he could have used his miraculous power to escape death, but he offered his life for us.
The passage from the Gospel of Mark shows us Jesus leaving with the apostles on the boat to go to the other shore of lake Galilee. A strong wind storm rises in the lake. The lake of Galilee is located two hundred meters below the sea level, and storms are frequent there, because the wind fills this space, causing violent phenomena. The storm that comes while Jesus and the disciples are in the middle is really dangerous: it throws the waves into the boat, so much so that it is now full of water. Jesus sits at the stern of the boat on a pillow and sleeps. Here he manifests himself in his humanity: he sleeps, despite the roar of the wind; he is tired from all the stress of his ministry, needs to sleep. The disciple woke him up and said to him: Master, don’t you care that we die? Here we can see the spontaneity and immediacy of the disciples’ words. Jesus then wakes up, scolds the wind and says to the sea: Be quiet, calm down!. The wind stops and there is a great calm. We see a great contrasts between the simple humanity of Jesus- They took him with them, as he was, in the boat, says Mark; Jesus then sleeps in the boat - and his divine action – he rebukes the wind and gives the sea an order which is immediately carried out: the wind ceased and there was a great calm. After restoring calm, Jesus rebukes the disciples: Why are you so fearful? Don’t you still have faith? The disciples had no faith, although he was with them. It is true that his presence seemed a mere human presence, and not a divine one. Precisely for this reason faith is necessary, to go beyond appearances and recognize that Jesus is really the Lord. This miracle arouses great fear in the disciples, because it is a manifestation of divine power. They say to each other: Who is this then, whom even the wind and the sea obey?
The second reading presents us with a different perspective. Paul reminds the Corinthians that Christ died for us. Jesus does not use his miraculous power t escape death; on the cross he does no miracle for himself. His adversaries challenged him, saying, If you are the Son of God, save yourself!” (Lk 23, 37); If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross! (Mt. 27, 40). Actually, he has the ability to descend miraculously, from the cross, but does not want to. Why? Out of love for us. Jesus loved us and gave himself up to death for us. John affirms: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13, 1). Jesus loved us to the end, that is, to the point of suffering death for us. This fact, completely, changes our situation. Paul declares: The love of Christ impels us to think that one is dead for all and therefore all are dead. In his death, Jesus took us all with him, to transform our lives. He died for everyone, so that those who live may no longer live for themselves, out for the one who died and rose again for them. Jesus died for love, so that we live in love. There is a reversal of our situation: if Jesus died for us out of love, we no longer have the right to live, selfishly, for ourselves, but must live for him and welcome the new life that he obtained for us with his passion and death, a life characterized above all by extreme love. We must then, completely, renounce our selfishness and welcome the dynamism of Christ’s love in us, which leads us to live for others and to seek their salvation rather than our advantages. Paul then affirms: By now we don’t know anyone anymore according to the flesh; and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know him that way. The Apostle wants us to understand that our way of seeing things can no longer be, simply, human way. Therefore, in front of every person we should say: He is a person for whom Christ died, a person to whom he offered a new life. We no longer know Jesus himself according to the flesh. The disciples who knew him before the passion no longer know him in the same way after his passion. In fact, they know that through the passion he has, radically, transformed his human condition and is now at another level of existence. We too must reach Jesus in this new condition of his. It is a question of an existence in which the flesh is no longer what dominates and subdues, but the Spirit who directs everything: the Spirit, whose fruit is peace, joy and love (cf. Gal 5, 22). If one is in Christ – says Paul -, he is new creature. It is, precisely, because he is a being created by the Holy Spirit. Old things have passed away, new ones have been born. This is the wonderful news of Jesus’ resurrection, who has become a life-giving spirit for us. In the Eucharist, we welcome the new life of the risen Christ. He made himself living bread, to communicate this life to us. It is therefore, a question of a life entirely animated by the Spirit, completely docile to the Spirit and open to generous relations with all our brothers and sisters. +John I. Okoye
(graphics by Chukwubike)
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